Vegan Lentil Chili – Instant Pot + Slow Cooker

This deliciously easy vegan lentil chili is sure to impress! With stove-top, Instant Pot, and slow cooker versions all in this post, you can whip it up any way you choose with minimal effort. Whoo!

Even better? This tasty chili can be made in one pot! Less effort + less dishes + a whole lot of veggie action = one ridiculously happy mama!

Wait…

Are you freaking out? You’re totally freaking out, aren’t you?

The lack of cheese on top of this chili has got to be shocking at least a few of y’all right now, especially those that have been with me long enough to know that cheese is basically it’s very own food group around here!

While I do love an extra cheesy pot-o-chili in my face once the temperature drops, I also need to fit into my pants on a regular basis. This healthy chili is a great way to veg it up and slim it down during the cold Fall and Winter months.

Absolutely feel free to jazz up this hearty recipe with a little bit of cheese if you’re of the vegetarian variety. Same goes for my T-rex friends – I’ll allow you to add a mountain of cheese as long as you promise me you’ll go veggie today!

Four card carrying carnivores gave this recipe an enthusiastic thumbs up, so let’s ditch the meat and slam some veggies today, shall we?

Because we all have a different chili cooking method of choice (and different appliances handy!) I’m going to go balls to the wall and include stove top, slow cooker, and electric pressure cooker instructions for this recipe. Crazy awesome right?!

Each method certainly has it’s perk.

I love using my Instant Pot for chilis and soups because I get slow cooked, well developed flavor in a fraction of the time. The traditional stove top method takes about the same time prep and cook, but I always suggest adding some extra time to simmer and mingle *or* you can cheat and make it the night before to serve the following day.

Leftover chili is the absolute best and this recipe is no exception. I guard my leftovers fiercely; they’re just so good!

As for the slow cooker, you have to carve out more time for cooking, but have the ease of making this while you’re at work or running errands. The cool thing about many newer slow cookers and even the Instant Pot, is the auto shutoff feature. My pressure cooker switches to warm when it’s done so I don’t have to drop what I’m doing and rush back to it. My food is hot and ready when I am!

I know, I know. I’m totally playing favorites here. I just LOVE my Instant pot! Plus once this delicious vegan lentil chili is done, I can toss some rice in it and have fluffy white rice in 8-12 minutes. YES!

Vegan Lentil Chili

A legume-packed twist on my popular Quinoa Chili recipe that we absolutely fell in love with!

No matter which cooking method you choose, this healthy vegan lentil chili is sure to warm you up on a cold night. Grab a bowl, add a mountain of your favorite toppings, and get ready to rock your taste buds!

Instructions

Switch your pressure cooker to the saute funtion and saute 1 TBSP oil with onion for 3-5 minutes, until edges are golden and browned.

Then add garlic, peppers, and corn, and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes to soften slightly.

Add lentils, veggie broth, chili beans, black beans and spices.

Set to high pressure for 15 minutes and allow to come to pressure.

Allow a natural pressure release.

Lastly, stir in crushed tomatoes and adjust broth/tomato/seasoning to taste, adding more of what you prefer to get your ideal thickness and flavor punch.

I added the crushed tomatoes at the end to avoid overstuffing my pressure cooker and score a quicker cook time as well. Since my crushed tomatoes were canned (LOVE muir glen's organic tomato basil) they took zero time to heat up once swirled into my piping hot pot-o-chili. Sweet!

If you want to dive in sooner, feel free to manually release the pressure on your Instant Pot by flipping the little lever from seal to vent. Worst case scenario, if your chili needs a little extra time you can seal it back up and give the veggies extra time to soften. Pressure cookers are pretty forgiving like that!

Add all your favorite toppings and dive in!

Recipe Notes

Feel free to adjust the consistency of the chili to your liking. As written it's perfectly thick and full of delicious texture, but can be thinned with a little broth or tomato sauce if desired! If you add a lot of extra liquid, consider amping up the spices a smidge to compensate. You can also make this as mild or as spicy as you'd like. As written it is pretty mild, then the jalapeños I added on top of one bowl really amped up the heat!

A Note on Salt and Pepper :: I leave salting the dish to the end to prevent over-seasoning. Depending on the brand and type of broth, tomatoes, and beans that you use, the sodium content will vary. I used low sodium broth, regular organic canned tomatoes, and didn't salt my chili.

Pressure cooker recipes always leave out the details so here's a breakdown of what you can expect time-wise: About 13 minutes to come to pressure plus 15 minutes cook time and 15 or so to release pressure. You won't need to be anywhere near your kitchen for this all to partake, the Instant Pot will handle it all and switch to warm once it's done. So fabulous right?

Nutrition facts below are an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. Add your favorite toppings and adjust as needed.

Nutrition Facts

Vegan Lentil Chili

Amount Per Serving

Calories 321Calories from Fat 36

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 4g6%

Sodium 993mg41%

Potassium 1149mg33%

Total Carbohydrates 56g19%

Dietary Fiber 18g72%

Sugars 12g

Protein 16g32%

Vitamin A39.6%

Vitamin C75.7%

Calcium10.8%

Iron36.4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

My stove top and pressure cooker versions of this chili looked dramatically different. The lentils held shape on the stove, but the pressure cooker pulverized them into “ground lentils” – kind of like ground beef minus the moo-cow! They were creamy and delicious and I couldn’t get enough!

The pulverized lentil version would be stellar for anyone trying to convince a lentil skeptic that they do indeed love these versatile legumes. Instant Pot for the win!

No Instant Pot? No problem!

If you don’t have a pressure cooker simply use the stove top or slow cooker instructions below to make this tasty lentil chili. Easy peasy!

stove top instructions

Bring a large pot to medium heat and add a drizzle of your favorite cooking oil. Sauté your onion until edges are golden, then add your garlic, bell pepper, and jalapeño. Cook until peppers are tender, approx. 5 minutes.

Next add veggie broth, crushed tomatoes, corn, chili beans, black beans, and spices; stir to mix. Let mixture come to a boil and add your dried red lentils. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 25-30 minutes. The longer you let it cook the more pronounced the flavor will be. Feel free to cook a little longer if time permits, up to you! Scoop out a bowlful, pile on the toppings, sit back, and enjoy!

slow cooker instructions

To make this lentil chili in the crock-pot, add all the ingredients to your slow cooker (minus your toppings) and walk away. It’s that easy!

This recipe takes about 5-6 hours on high. You’ll basically want to let it simmer away until the lentils and veggies are super tender. The chili will thicken as it cools. For extra flavor you can 100% sauté your onion and garlic before adding it to the slow cooker, but it’s not essential. As I mentioned above, adjust the thickness to your liking with extra crushed tomato or broth and season to taste based on any changes. Pile on the toppings and dive on in!

Leftover lentil chili? That’s cause for celebration!

I have it on good authority that this vegan lentil chili is even better the next day. It will stay fresh for a few days in the fridge or a month or so in the freezer. We ran out a few days later and cannot wait to make it again! My friends and family adored it.

Comments

Mary Ann Felix

This is the best chili recipe ever! The blend of lentils, beans, vegetables and spices make it delicious. It was easy to make it on the stovetop. It’s one of my new favorites! I highly recommend it to vegan and carnivore alike!

AJ

Our little family really enjoyed this recipe! I initially made this in the slow cooker. I just bought an insta-pot. I would like to make this recipe with all the beans being dried. Do you have any idea what needs to change in the recipe for this to work? (e.g. more liquid, more time…)

So to use dried beans you actually have to cook the black beans on their own first in the Instant Pot. The reason is that they take so much longer to cook than the veggies do, and if you cook them together the veggies can literally melt into nothingness (This is great for black bean soup though, BTW since you’re blending anyways!) — To cook 1 pound of dried black beans you’ll add 6 cups of water and cook on high pressure for 25 minutes in your IP. Then let the pressure release naturally for 20 minutes and they should be cooked perfectly!

Use what you need for the soup and then you can freeze the rest in 1 cup portions for several months, defrosting them whenever you need them for soups, stews, dips, or chilis!

Erin

Hey Erin! If you break it into 6 portions, it’s 309 calories per serving as per MyFitnessPal’s online calculator. For 10 small side-dish servings it’s 185 calories per serving. This is calculated before the toppings since everyone adds different favorites on top! Hope this helps! xo

Paula Peterson

This is delicious! So versatile! We’re not vegans so I added ground turkey the second time I made the recipe although the vegan version is great too. I love keeping generous serving size portions of this in the freezer for variety since there’s only 2 of us. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!

Sophie

Hey Sophie! Red lentils are probably half the size of brown/green (super thin basically) and they pulverize when you cook them under pressure, giving this awesome meaty texture without the meat! I think they’re best here!

You can use the brown-green ones if you’d like to in the slow cooker but you will need extra liquid (I’ll be back with measurements in a moment – a reader tested it out in the crock-pot and reported back!) In the Instant Pot only red will work because they don’t soak up as much liquid. If you added that much green lentils to the IP they’d suck up all the liquid and burn. If you add them in already cooked then they won’t though! I hope that helps and if you have any more questions for sure send them my way! XOXO

Hookay so the reader that made my Lentil Tortilla Soup in the slow cooker reported that he wound up adding an extra 2 cups of broth to the crock-pot for the green lentils and extended the cook time by an hour to give them the extra time needed to cook. LMK what appliance you planned on using and we can try to figure something out! 🙂

Sophie

Thanks so much for that! I made it in a stove-top on the weekend with red lentils and it was so tasty but i just wasnt a fan of the texture…it kind of became a big bowl of slop! Maybe i overcooked them? I thought i would give it a try with the green or brown lentils as i heard they hold there shape a bit better! Would either do it on the stove top or slow cooker as i dont have an instant pot!

Super happy to help! You’re SO good to go then if you’re doing stove-top or slow cooker! The extra liquid and extra simmer time is all you’ll have to worry about then 🙂 The red lentils are supposed to fall apart and make a sloppy hot mess chili haha – I think you’ll for sure love the green/brown lentils instead because they’ll hold their shape! I use them in my lentil tacos all the time b/c they stay in tact like champs! 🙂

Sophie

David

I followed your directions without variation. I sealed the lid and set the Instapot on high pressure for 15 minutes. During the time I was waiting for the pot to pressurize, a “Burn” message appeared on the screen. I’d not ever dealt with that message before. Looked up what it meant, scraped the bottom of the pot and added the remainder of the 32 oz. veggie broth. The chili really did seem quite thick. Resealed the lid, set to high pressure for 15 minutes and received the “Burn” message again. Scraped the the bottom of the pot and added even more broth. Resealed, set on high for 15 minutes, same thing happened again. I opened another container of broth, added to the instapot ….same scenario again. I gave up on the pressure cooking. The chili tastes very good. I think it would have been even better had it pressure cooked. Nobody else has commented having this issue. Any suggestions?

Hey David! Eek! So sorry to hear you were victim to the dreaded “Burn” notice on the IP. It hasn’t happened to me yet but I hear it’s crazy common when any variation in ingredients is made with a recipe and also because sometimes our beloved Instant Pot is fickle as can be. You’re right on the thickness, it does not like stews/chilis/etc that are too thick and the liquid ratio get’s crazy technical. Basically it wants 1 cup of liquid to work, but then if ingredients that soak up that liquid are present you need more, hence the 2 cups of broth and 2 cups of crushed tomatoes in liquid. It is for sure maddening at times trying to give the IP what it wants and still get the thick chili we crave.

Two main things could have happened here I’m happy to help troubleshoot! First, when sautéing if any brown bits got left on the bottom of the pot, the IP may be doomed from the start. It views those browned bits as char/burn and will do auto shutoff like you experienced. The next factor could be changing just a single ingredient from using brown/green lentils versus red (they require a ton of liquid to cook and soak up the entire pot’s liquid) or changing one of the other ingredients too. For sure let me know and I’ll try to get to the bottom of it for ya!

I’m so so glad you enjoyed the chili but terrible sorry about the IP drama!

Sophie

Shauna

I LOVE this recipe! I just made it for the 4th time last night and it turns out great every time. I always get excited when I put this one the menu because I know: 1- It has healthy ingredients 2- It is easy to prepare 3- With some baked sweet potato on the side I will get a filling, satisfying meal at the end of the day. I usually let mine cook for the full 6 hours in the crockpot to make sure all of the lentils are tender. My husband usually adds some extra jalapeño in his bowl, but I think it is perfect as written. My two-year-old daughter even loves it! I’m so excited to heat up some leftovers for lunch!

Margarita

I have made this chili twice! On the stove and in the slow cooker. I added a little extra veggie broth and used regular paprika since I didn’t have the smoked one.Lentils took longer than 25 minutes to cook on the stove. When I made it in the slow cooker, I sauteed onions and peppers before putting them in the pot. My whole family fell in love with this chili! It’S DELICIOUS! i will be making it today! Thank you for sharing this recipe!

Ashley

Hey Ashley! The chili yields anywhere from 6-10 servings but will vary on how big/small of a portion. Sometimes I’ll have a big bowl with cornbread and other times I’ll heat up a small cup to pair with a salad or sandwich. Hope you ADORE it! 🙂

Sherry Parks

I made this today and we loved it! I did add a can pure pumpkin when I added tomatoes, as well as more broth. I took the seeds out of the Jalapenos and it was still plenty spicy. My husband like it too and he is a big meat guy. He didn’t even mention that there was no meat in it.

Carissa Tripp

I made this recipe for my lunches this week. It is absolutely delicious! It is so flavorful and jam-packed with veggies! I ate it over a brown rice and quinoa mix and added nutritional yeast on top. I am definitely planning to make this again!

Cindy Tanner

Luv a Lab

OK, confession time: I doubted you. I’m sorry, I just didn’t think chili could truly deliver without meat. I decided to give it a try in my crockpot yesterday and didn’t even like the smell for the first 4 hours or so. Then it started smelling like chili and the magic happened. After 6 hours, everything came together into wonderfulness! I’m a texture freak and absolutely loved the texture of this chili. Adding lentils was a stroke of genius because they made it creamy while letting the beans and corn give it chunkiness. I served it over a little bit of groats and it was super filling. I added chipotle powder in addition to the regular chili powder and will add more chipotle and more jalapeños next time but other than that, I won’t change a thing. Well, I’ll double the recipe!! Thank you, Jenn, for another great recipe!

Dina

Just wanted to let you know that in the pressure cooker directions it doesn’t say when to add the lentils! I’m making this now and just realized I didn’t add them to the pot, so I just added them and am going to do high pressure for another 15 min and do quick release- hope it turns out. Looks delicious, I just wish I’d noticed the lack of lentils when I was following the directions. I’m sure it will still be tasty.

Ohmygosh Dina where is my brain?! I have it in my recipe notebook but somehow I goofed and didn’t type it into the recipe widget — thank you SO SO MUCH for telling me and I’m beyond sorry that I left it out in the first place. Everything (seriously thank you!) is fixed now and I hope you adore the chili! I actually just reheated a bowl for dinner tonight – we’re on our third batch!

Hey Trisha! I’ve been making it in the pressure cooker but I’ll give it a whirl in the slow cooker today since I had planned on making another batch for the week! I’ll keep you posted 🙂 I plan on using the high setting for about 4 hours.

Update :: So it took until the 5/6 hour mark on high for my red lentils to get nice and soft. They still hold their form (unlike the pulverized pressure cooked lentils in the batch I photographed) but they’re nice and soft and fully cooked. Hope this helps Trisha! xoxo

Carissa Tripp

I made it in the slow cooker and the lentils did cook all the way. But I used tomato sauce instead of crushed tomatoes, because that’s what I had on hand. I don’t know if that would make a difference, but it worked great for me!

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